Railway hopper car

ABSTRACT

Pneumatic motor actuated mechanism to open railway hopper car doors in which a grooved central member moves vertically between the upper ends of two pivoting swing arms to pull them together or push them apart so as to open or close doors fastened to the lower ends of the swing arms.

United States Patent [1 1 Barnard et a1.

RAILWAY HOPPER CAR Inventors: Benjamin R. Barnard, Minnetonka; Jerome C. OFallon, Cottage Grove, both of Minn.

The Maxson Corporation, St. Paul, Minn.

Filed: Feb. 14, 1974 Appl. No.: 442,446

Assignee:

US. Cl. 105/240; 105/250; 105/283; 105/290; 105/310 Int. Cl B6ld 7/02; 361d 7/08; B61d 7/28 Field of Search 105/240, 250, 283, 290, 105/292, 310

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 12/1941 Landis 105/24 D X [4 1 Sept. 2, 1975 2,600,357 Zimmerman 105/292 2,729,503 l/1956 Armington..... 105/283 X 3,122,106 2/1964 Novelli 105/240 3,786,764 l/l974 Beers, Jr. et al [05/283 X Primary Examiner-M. Henson Wood, Jr. Assistant Examiner-Howard Beltran Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Neil B. Schulte [57] ABSTRACT Pneumatic motor actuated mechanism to open railway hopper car doors in which a grooved central member moves vertically between the upper ends of two pivoting swing arms to pull them together or push them apart so as to open or close doors fastened to the lower ends of the swing arms.

6 Claims, 14 Drawing Figures PATENTEDSEP 2:975 3. 902,434

sum 1 OF g INVENTOR BENJAMIN R BARNARD JEROME O'Fnuolv 1 /6. 4 C

TTORNEY PATENTED SEP 2 1975 sum 2 up 4 R Y mW m WWO N fi r fiA L m PDQ mm W ER 5 m u PATENTEDSEP- 19 5 3,902.43A

sum .3 o g L i fi X V INVENTOR fNJAM/A/ A? ARNARD EFPOME C. Oman/v ,5) BY ATTORNEY WENTEU SEP 75 saw u or 4;

INVENTOR BENJAMIN R. BARN/1RD JEROME C. O'fhuo/v BY um? ATTORNEY .RAW Hbi s R a large mass of heavy material is resting on the doors they are very difficult to openespecially ifthis material becomes wet and then frozen. With frozen material the doors behave as though they were virtually welded shut. Even large pneumatic cylinders have proven inadequate to overcome this problem and as a. result the doors have been designed with a slant toward the cen tral crack so that gravitymay assist the opening process. In this arrangement the weight of the material helps to force the doors open. l'he problem with this approach. however. is that the doors are now prone to open too easily when the material is not frozen especially if a pneumatic leak develops or a large. bump is experienced by the car while travelingalong the railway. Thus, elaborate locking schemes have been developed to insure that the doors remainshut but most of these schemes have provenunreliable to a. degree. Since accidental door opening on a moving train would be catastrophic the prior art'cars have usually resorted to bolting the doors shut as a necessary safety measure. Because of this a great deal of time and labor is necessary to load andjunload the cars. ln addition special tools have been required for the bolting and unbolting procedure. Our invention overcomes the above problems. I I

. BRIEF SUMMARY OF TH'EINYENTION Briefly. our invention contemplates suspending. the doors on swing arms and-applying pneumatic pressure force not to the doors or arms directly but rather to a sliding member between the swing arms connected to the arms by pivoting linking -members.The' sliding member and linking members are moved to and overcenter position to close the doors so that the-forces produced by. each door in trying to open are directed remain closed. It may be seen. therefore. that his an more force towards opening the doors than that of'the prior art. Further objects and advantages will become apparent upon consideration of the following description and drawings. V

BRIEF oEsc iPTioN-oF T AW N FIGJI is asec'tional view of a typical railway hopper car showing the primary components in ing and closing mechanism.

FIG. 2 is another sectional view similar 'toFIG. 'l but showing the doors in an open position.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the sliding member which is moved up and down between the swing arms.

my door open FIG. 4 shows an additional locking pin device used to keepthe sliding member from moving accidentally.

FIG. 5 is a top view of the sliding member and in sec tion theltrack which it follows.

FIG. 6 shows one installation position of the door opening device. i

FIG. '2 is asectional viewnear the end of .the car of FlG o showing how the doors arehung from pivoting arms.

5 FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of our invention using two door opening devices to suspend the doors. FIG. 9 and FIG.,l0 are endl viewsof the railway car of FIG; 8. showing the doors closed and'open respectively. I

FIG, 1] is a view of another embodiment having devices positioned at each endwof the door.

FIG. 12 and FIG. 13 show the door opening and cIos-' ing devices used on the car in. FIG. 11 in closed and open positions respectively.

FIG. 14 is a sectional side view of the pneumatic cylinder and sliding member mechanism used on'the car in FlG;ll ..w

' oEscRIRTio yoi THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT InFIG. across sectional view of a typical railway car is presented. having sides lll) supported by longitudinal braces 12 and a cross brace 14. A pair of swinging doors '16 and 18 are suspended from a "pair of swing arms 20 and 22 which are pivotedrespectively about pivot points 28 and 24. A sliding member 32 is arranged to slide vertically along a track 42. Sliding member 40- has a pair of extensions 32 and 33 formed thereon which are connectedto the'swing arms 20 and 22 by means of pivoting links3-4 and 36. The exact configuration of sliding member 40 may be better seen in FIG.'3. In FIG. 1 it may be seenthat a pneumatic'cylinder 30 is connected-to sliding 'member40 by a rod 41. To open the doors cylinder 30 is caused to'retract p'u'lling sliding member 40 downward. Because of the linking arrangementshownin FIG. I a great deal 'of leverage canbe exerted by cylinder 30 on the upper ends of swing arms 20 and 22.-.This enables the doors to be initiallyopened even if they are frozen shut by a largemass of froienmaterial. As sliding member40 moves to the bottom of its travel the doors are pulled open as shown in FIG. 2. It should be noticed that doors l6 and 18 are provided with inclined portions 17 and 'l9 where they contact the sides of the railway car 10. These: in" cline portions 'are provided so that material is not jammed against the side ofthe walls as the doors begin to open. The inclined portions 17 and 19 also help give additional gravity assistance in the initial phases of the dooropehing. When the doors are again closed as 'shown in FIGv 1 it should beno ticed that the rest position of sliding member 40 is 'at'a height such that the pivot pointsbetween sliding member 40 and links 34 and'36are slightly higherthan the pivot points between links 34 and 36 ahd swing arm 20 and 22. This position is termed a slight overcenter position and insures that all forces directed against swing arms20 and 22 by any mass of material in the car are applied against each other and the load carried compressionally by sliding member 40. Thus, when the doors are closed there are no undue stresses againstcylinder 30 and even if a pneumatic leak developed the doors can not open accidentally.

To insure against the possibility of a complete pneumatic failure coupled with enough of ajolt to force sliding member 40 downward past the overcenter position the apparatus of FIG. 4 is presented. In FIG. 4 a rod 54 resting in a guide 52 is inserted underneath a notch 50 on sliding member 40 by means of a crank 58 pivoted on a bracket 60 and actuated by a pneumatic cylinder 62. Pneumatic cylinder 62 is included in the same pneumatic circuit as cylinder 30. However, since the resistance of the cylinder 62 is quite a bit less than that of cylinder 30, cylinder 62 responds first to a release signal unlocking member 40. After this is accomplished the pressure builds up to a point sufficient to actuate cylinder 30 and open the doors.

Sliding member 40 shown in FIG. 3 is adapted to follow a grooved track which may be more easily understood by reference to FIG. in which a top view is seetionally shown. The slide 40 is generally II-shaped in horizontal section, and slides between spaced ribs or ways 42 and 44 on the parallel vertical uprights supported by the cross member 14. The uprights are connected at their upper ends by a connecting member 43. It should be understood that this particular shape of track is only one of many that could be used and should not be construed as limiting the design of the invention.

In FIG. 6 the location of the door opening device in a railway car is demonstrated for a conventional coal car. The entire device is shown as lying in the center of the car numbered 70 in FIG. 6. Since the doors l6 and 18 are relatively long extending nearly the length of the car they are additionally supported by hinges at each end. In FIG. 7 a sectional end view of the car of FIG. 6 is presented showing a pair of swing arms 72 and 74 which extend up to pivot points 76 and 78 so as to carry the ends of doors I6 and 18. In some embodiments of the invention however, end hinges are unnecessary.

In FIG. 8 a hopper car for lighter material such as wood-chips is disclosed. Here the doors have no separate hinges whatsoever but are supported by two door opening mechanisms similar in operation to the mechanism of FIGS. 1 and 2 indicated generally as 80 and 82. The car of FIG. 8 is also provided with wider opening doors as evidenced by the drawings of FIG. 9 and FIG. 10. Furthermore it should be noted that this embodiment also mounts the pneumatic cylinder 82 mounted on a cross member 83 above the sliding member 40 rather than below it as was the case in FIGS. 1 and 2. This embodiment is shown to demonstrate another variation. in the present invention.

In FIG. 11 an ore car is shown in which the very heavy materials can be carried. Here the doors are somewhat shorter and supported at the very ends by pneumatic opening devices according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. I2 and FIG. I3 it may also be seen that the doors 84 and 85 disclosed herein extend the full width of the car so that when the doors are open there is no flat or near flat surfaces to retain material anywhere in the car. Such a design is used for material that is hard to dump completely out of the hopper car Also in this embodiment it should be noted that the doors 84 and 85 are mounted at relatively steep inclines so that gravity can assist in opening the doors as described earlier. With the overcenter position of sliding member 40 described earlier such steeply inclined doors can be held closed even when a car is fully loaded with a very heavy material such as ore. In FIG. 14 a side k 4 sectional view of the opening and closing cylinder 88 is presented in which it can be seen that the interior piston 89 is connected by a rod 90 to sliding member 40 which moves along a track 42, 44.

A number of different embodiments have been shown herein in order to describe and suggest that various modifications can be made to our invention without departing from the spirit and scope of it. Additional variations include using any number of sliding members operating in conjunction with a pair of swing arms. Other types of hinges can be used as well to help support the door. The position of the pneumatic cylinder for opening and closing the door can be varied quite extensively as long as the basic concept of the sliding member mounted between the swing arms and coupled by pivoting links is maintained. Also it is possible to substitute other force producing devices for the pneumatic system such as a hydraulic system.

I claim: 1. In a railway hopper car having a bottom comprising a pair of doors adapted to be swung aside so as "to empty the contents of the car, apparatus to open and close the'doors comprising:

a plurality of swing arms pivoted about pivot points on the hopper car, said swing arms having upper and lower ends on generally opposite sides of the pivot points and said swing arms being connected at their lower ends to the doors of the hopper car;

slidable means comprising a grooved member adapted to slide vertically along a grooved track between the upper ends of said swing arms;

pneumatic means connected to said slidable means so as to move said slidable means generally along said track and along a vertical path relative to the car;

linking means comprising a pair of linking membeis pivoted on each side of said grooved member and pivoted at their opposite ends to said swing arms at the upper ends of said swing arms so as to move the upper ends of the two swing arms apart and together in response to movement of said slidable means.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which said pneumatic means comprises a pneumatic cylinder operable to move said grooved member over a range of distance from a location where the pivot points of said linking members on said grooved member are slightly above the pivot points of said linking members on said swing arms down to a lower location where the upper ends of the swing arms are pulled close enough together to open the doors completely.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 including locking means operable to lock said grooved member to its grooved track at a predetermined location.

4. The-apparatus of claim 2 including at least one more pneumatically activated slidable grooved member connected through linking members to swing arms also connected to the doors at their lower ends.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 in which at least one of the pneumatic cylinders is mounted above said range of distance.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 in which at least one of the pneumatic cylinders is mounted below said range of distance. 

1. In a railway hopper car having a bottom comprising a pair of doors adapted to be swung aside so as to empty the contents of the car, apparatus to open and close the doors comprisiNg: a plurality of swing arms pivoted about pivot points on the hopper car, said swing arms having upper and lower ends on generally opposite sides of the pivot points and said swing arms being connected at their lower ends to the doors of the hopper car; slidable means comprising a grooved member adapted to slide vertically along a grooved track between the upper ends of said swing arms; pneumatic means connected to said slidable means so as to move said slidable means generally along said track and along a vertical path relative to the car; linking means comprising a pair of linking members pivoted on each side of said grooved member and pivoted at their opposite ends to said swing arms at the upper ends of said swing arms so as to move the upper ends of the two swing arms apart and together in response to movement of said slidable means.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which said pneumatic means comprises a pneumatic cylinder operable to move said grooved member over a range of distance from a location where the pivot points of said linking members on said grooved member are slightly above the pivot points of said linking members on said swing arms down to a lower location where the upper ends of the swing arms are pulled close enough together to open the doors completely.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2 including locking means operable to lock said grooved member to its grooved track at a predetermined location.
 4. The apparatus of claim 2 including at least one more pneumatically activated slidable grooved member connected through linking members to swing arms also connected to the doors at their lower ends.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4 in which at least one of the pneumatic cylinders is mounted above said range of distance.
 6. The apparatus of claim 4 in which at least one of the pneumatic cylinders is mounted below said range of distance. 